Christmas Moonscapes

Some new moonscapes on Christmas Day at sunrise. Amazing the forms that appear.

Kachina 11/25/93 - 12/13/07

With great sadness, I write to tell you of the passing of my dear companion and friend of fourteen years, my beloved Kachina, who on Thursday traded this life in for another. She has been suffering from old age and sore joints for some time and has been having an especially hard time this last year even getting up. But she had a great strength and will to live and wanted nothing more than to please her master and for life to go on as usual.

Feeling a need to head north, I decided to make an escape from the city on Monday to get in some great skiing on the unbelievable amount of snow that has fallen at our house in VT (already over 130 inches). So, I took Kachina and Orlando, one of our cats, and left Nick with Ella and Nico. I felt a very strong pull to go and there was no telling me otherwise, just ask Nick. I knew that when we got that house, it would be where Kachina would rest. And when I visited the vet up there earlier this year, I knew that that would be the spot she would die. Intuition is never wrong. I just did not expect it now.

I woke up on Thursday morning to take her out for her morning walk, but things were far from usual. It appeared that she had had a stroke, unable to stand, and fell to the one side when I tried to help her. She was pretty confused and panting heavily. When I called to speak to our long time great vet on LI, he had taken a leave of absence and they weren't sure when and if he was coming back...I believe he had said something about possibly moving to VT the last time we saw him. Funny. So I then called the local VT vet who told me about peripheral vestibular syndrome which is commonly mistaken for a stroke. They told me her eyes would be darting back and forth if I looked closely. Sure enough they were. It would not kill her, but she would not be able to walk for perhaps three weeks and she would probably never be the same. This was the clincher, something she did not want to go through and she let me know it was time. They had an opening at three, could I make it? I hesitantly said yes and scheduled my date with destiny. I was with her at the end, holding her, kissing her face and telling her how much I loved her. I would see her again I said, on the other side.

It was such an honor to have been her master. She had the absolute best soul and demeanor of any dog I have ever known. She will be greatly missed.

LA, NYC & Lake Placid

While I'm onto Dinner For Five, here's some images that I shot for the different show opens. The lights in motion became a strong design element that they used throughout the series in their graphics and marketing. The first image is one of the restaurants we shot in, Alto Palato in Los Angeles. The second is a close up of the 9-11 Memorial in New York City and the third is a 70's inspired zoom shot of the Palace Theater in Lake Placid, NY. I will try to post the actual opens on here soon.

Rosie Perez

I have worked with Rosie a few times. Not only on Dinner for Five, but also on the documentary Yo Soy Boricua, which was her directorial debut. Super smart and very sweet woman. This was shot at La Chanterelle in Tribeca.

NYC Red Tailed Hawk

This flew right at me as I sat at my desk uptown on Manhattan Avenue this morning, after spotting it perched on a fire escape across the courtyard. I had just grabbed my camera and low and behold it flew in for a closer look. Cool.

Barry Pepper

Actor Barry Pepper, best known from Saving Private Ryan, thoughtful and introspective in a Los Angeles courtyard .

Isaac Mizrahi

I'll be posting some new portraits from Dinner for Five that I had previously overlooked. It's amazing how I missed these. Here's Isaac Mizrahi at the Algonquin Hotel in midtown. We had met at the Washington Square Park in the dog run when I was living at the studio years before.

Ella in the Snow

Our little Ella, one of the now two strays we've adopted that wouldn't take no for an answer. Beautifully backlit by a little sunshine in a light snow yesterday on the front deck.

Kachina turns 14!

Thursday was Kachina's birthday marking the beginning of her fifteenth year of life. God bless her. And me.

VT Winter Thanksgiving

We came up to the house in VT for the week to get away and relax and were pleasantly surprised by the blanket os snow that awaited us. Man, so nice.

Gary Crittenden - Citigroup's new CFO

Shot this earlier this year soon before Charles Prince lured him away from American Express to become CFO at Citigroup. He has his hands full now over there, that's for sure. I've photographed Gary a few times through the years. Nice guy. Interesting facts; Mormon, big skier (in Utah, of course), took Filene's Basement public and also owns a lot of Dunkin Donut franchises. Apparently doubled his salary to 10 million with the move. Amazing.

Marcel Beaudin and his Original Perspective

We met with the architect of our new house, Marcel Beaudin, this summer and received the Durney's original plans from '71, this perspective included. Also gives a little 'perspective' to to the earlier living room shot of Nick which is just inside the large upper windows. Cool.

Shagadelic Living Room

Nick relaxing in the VT living room last night. We're loving it up here.

Ski Season and Bums

I went hiking on Monday before heading back down to the city and went up the Long Trail to the top of Jay Peak. There was a little snow that had fallen and it was eerily quiet with everything frozen in time since the spring. Looking forward to the ski season ahead. I hope to spend a lot of time up there and want to do a series on ski bums.

Gerry Ginsburg

This is Gerry, my friend and upstairs neighbor from the studio. He is a fantastic pianist, composer and poet. Here he is in two different setups at his piano surrounded by the gorgeous light that inspires him to create new work on a daily basis. Also behind him in the black and white, framed and hung on the wall, is a print that I had given him of a flower he loves in Washington Square Park.

Lynette

This is Lynette, my friend Tracey's mom in her kitchen on East 28th St in NYC. She is a retired registered nurse who emigrated from Guyana in 1966 with six children and raised them all in this apartment. They all ate well from this room, as I did today, dining on homemade nan and chicken curry after the shoot.

Pat & Bugsy

Pat is a former Rockette, mother of two grown men and a stroke survivor of eight years. I met her and Bugsy, her Great Dane, at the Crab Festival a couple of weeks ago. She claimed to have OCD about cleanliness, despite the clutter in the pink room. After all she was having a yard sale the following day.

Dick, Mastic Beach Resident

Dick is a good friend of my mother in law Edith and on her suggestion, I included him in my new 'at home' portrait series. A widower and former Marine, he lives in Mastic Beach and is active in the community. He dressed up for the occasion in his old uniform, which he can still fit into almost fifty years later. I really love the vertical shot. It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting. Dick, of course, prefers the more flattering horizontal shot.

Mastic Beach Neighbor

This is a neighbor of ours out in Mastic Beach. She lives up in Massachusetts and visits with her husband and teenage boy for beach vacations. But I have yet to see her out on the beach. She is a very sweet woman, private and proud. I appreciate her letting me photograph her in her home.

Diesel Adscapes

Some new old shots that I recently found. The Adscape body of work is getting substantial. A show should be in the near future.

Kachina

My Kachina in happier times at Smith Point Beach. She will turn fourteen in two months.

VT Summers

The growth all around the house is pretty mature and low maintenance. and Lush. and Perfect. :o)

Nick

Friday in the backyard. He wanted to change into something else, but I convinced him to stay in his morning loungewear. And add the socks. So cute.

Orlando

Orlando up in VT this week, looking like taxidermy.

Lynette

Lynette is a house painter, online book seller, wife and mother of two. And drives a yellow Corvette. If you need your house painted, look no further, she is a perfectionist. Let me know.

Boat Basin Foot Traffic

Along the Hudson River last night at one of the Boat Basin entrances on the Upper West Side.

New Adscapes

Billy Baldwin

One of my favorites from the day.

New Billy Baldwin Tears

Roses, Dog and Cats

Had a great week out at the beach house with Nick and the girls.
Peaceful, beautiful white-trash world of Mastic Beach.

New Adscapes

Kachina's Teeth

Smiles all around.

Sexy Adscapes

These two shotss are from a location scout for a feature on AZ for The Source.

Vermont!

And so it begins up North.
A dream come true.
:o)